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In September 1780, coming off of his victory at Camden, South Carolina on August 16, Cornwallis marched into North Carolina. His immediate objective was to raise a force of Loyalists, or Tories, before moving on to Salisbury. By late September, the British column was stricken by illness and halted for two weeks in the area known as the Waxhaws, setting up camp on the north side of Waxhaw Creek. The Loyalist Legion of Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, accompanied by a company of British light infantry from the 71st Regiment of Foot, crossed the Wateree River at Camden Ferry and operated on the river’s eastern side. The primary reason for this division of the British column was due to foraging, which was scarce in the Waxhaws region. However, Tarleton’s men soon went into camp at White’s Mill, South Carolina on Fishing Creek when their commander fell seriously ill with yellow fever. Cornwallis was reluctant to advance on Charlotte until Tarleton had recovered, as he wanted to send Tarleton’s cavalry forward to clear the path towards Charlotte. The delay also gave more time to recruit local Loyalists.
On September 5, twenty-four-year-old Major William R. Davie was appointed the commander of all cavalry in North Carolina. On September 21, he initiated a surprise attack on a Tory encampment on the plantation of one of his own men, Captain James Wauchope (also sometimes spelled Wahab and Walkup). The only detailed account of the incident came from Davie himself, written sometime after his retirement from public life in 1803. In his recounting, his opponents were Tarleton’s cavalry, supported by the light infantry of the 71st Regiment of Foot. However, Tarleton’s column in fact was still at White’s Mill and remained there until September 23, when Tarleton had finally recovered to the extent that his men advanced to the Catawba River, crossing and encamping at Blair’s Mill, South Carolina on the eastern side of the river.
According to Lord Cornwallis in a letter written later on the day of the skirmish, Davie’s opponents were “two or three volunteer companys of our militia, who had made some successfull scouts.” This is supported by two letters written by Brigadier General William Lee Davidson of the Salisbury District Brigade of the North Carolina Militia, one written to a pastor later on September 21 and a second written to Major General Horatio Gates on September 24 (misdated to September 14 in a published version in the State Records of North Carolina), which state that Davie’s opponents were a band of Loyalists. An additional September 24 letter to Gates by Colonel Jethro Sumner, then in temporary command of the Hillsborough District Brigade of the N.C. Militia, differs in small details but in general supports the other wartime accounts. All accounts agree that Davie attacked early in the morning, with a force of somewhere between 120 (according to Davidson) and 150 men (according to Davie). The Patriot force was a mixed command of cavalry (described as forty dragoons by Davidson) and light infantry, the latter probably mounted riflemen. Cornwallis and Davidson both confirmed that Davie completely routed the Tories. In his postwar account, Davie claimed to have routed Tarleton’s cavalry, but then had to withdraw when the British light infantry began to form up. Regardless, according to Davidson the Patriots were able to quickly round up almost fifty horses and saddles and nearly forty muskets or rifles before departing; Davie put the figure at ninety-six horses and saddles and 120 guns. The Patriots did not lose a single man killed, and only one slightly wounded. Davie claimed to have ordered his men to give no quarter and estimated that his opponents lost from between fifteen to twenty killed and about forty wounded, the latter despite Davie’s claim that his men in fact took no prisoners. The Tories had time to set the buildings of Wauchope’s plantation on fire, the latter supposedly on the direct orders of an enraged Tarleton, who in fact was not present and would have been too ill to have participated if he had.
Davie’s attack is often referred to as the Battle of Wahab’s (Wauchope’s) Plantation. The skirmish was a prelude to the Battle of Charlotte on September 26 and the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7. Today a large 1869 Greek Revival style house, built by a descendant of Captain Wauchope, stands on the site. The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a marker to the “Battle of the Waxhaws” in 1941, a local name for the clash that is usually utilized by historians of the era to refer to an action that took place in South Carolina near Lancaster on May 29, 1780, also known as Buford’s Massacre.
References:
Walter Clark, ed., The State Records of North Carolina, vol. 14 (1896)
Jeffrey A. Denman and John F. Walsh, Greene and Cornwallis in the Carolinas (2020)
Blackwell P. Robinson, William R. Davie (1957)
Blackwell P. Robinson, ed., The Revolutionary War Sketches of William R. Davie (1976)
Ian Saberton, ed., The Cornwallis Papers, vol. 2 (2010)
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